Canadian 1 — Lightning 4 | Same movie in Florida again

(Tampa) There is often a little air of deja vu every time the Canadian arrives in Florida during the holidays, in recent years anyway.

We don’t really know why, but it’s often here, in this hot corner of the country where tempers tend to get heated, that the Canadian comes to bump his nose against the harsh reality.

Like Wednesday night in Tampa, for example.

Last year, it was in the state of Tom Petty that the wheels of the red-white-blue bus began to disembark, among other things during a match in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis at Sunrise, when he there was no one left on the Canadian bench, or almost. It was during this historic game that Cam Hillis made his NHL debut, by the way (we haven’t seen him since).

It is therefore with a lot of nostalgia that we began to think of so many magical scenes while seeing Brayden Point cross the defense of the Canadian in full to come and make 3-0 Tampa Bay at the end of the second period, a goal which sums it all up.

The meeting ended with a victory for the Lightning, by the score of 4-1, but that is hardly the important point. The important thing is that reality will still catch up with this club at the same place, and at the same time on the calendar.

Also, if you ever missed it: the Canadian finished the game with a 0-for-5 record on the power play. That too is a problem.

“When you don’t score, it feels like nothing is working anymore. It cuts our legs completely off. And we absolutely have to be much better than that. »

Clearly, this all-out offensive breakdown is starting to spill over into the psychological department. The damage is “inside the head”, to quote Dave Hilton Jr, and Martin St-Louis, once a scorer in his youth, will have to explain to his players how to get out of such a quagmire when nobody can put it in.

At the same time, could the present situation really be avoided? After all, this is the National Hockey League, not the Wonderful World of Disney, and there’s no magic wand that could mask the reality of a five-rookie defensive unit.

“But we can’t see that as a problem,” said one of these young defenders, Johnathan Kovacevic. Imagine if we started chaining victories with five young guys on the blue line? It would be amazing and that’s the way to approach it, I would say. »

This beautiful optimism of Kovacevic would benefit from being contagious, because at the moment, there is no joy in this locker room. The music that blared from the loudspeakers at the start of the season after the games has since given way to the heavy silence of the defeats, only broken by the sound of the wet bags that everyone throws with spite on one of the carts in the corridor.

It’s also the sound of reality, one might assume.

In details

Five recruits to the CH blue line!

The Canadian did Wednesday night in Tampa what he had never done in its entire history: start a game with five rookies in defense. Thus, Justin Barron, freshly recalled from Laval the day before, played his first game of the season with the Canadiens—he had taken part in five games with the club last season—alongside Guhle, Kovacevic, Harris and Xhekaj. The last time such a rookie landing happened on a blue line in the NHL was in 2007, when the Philadelphia Flyers sent a five-rookie squad, including Quebec defender Alexandre Picard, onto the ice. . Earlier in the day, Martin St-Louis, did not seem to be too offended by this situation. “We were already playing with four rookie defenders, that’s one more,” he simply replied.

Brayden Point sounds the charge

It wasn’t long before the guys from the Lightning came out on top on that hot, beautiful Wednesday night in Tampa, and the one who sounded the charge was called Brayden Point. The Lightning forward scored twice to make it 2-0 then 3-0, and then it felt like the game was already over. Among other things, his second goal of the game, where he went through the defense of the Canadian, will undoubtedly be seen and seen often on the screens over the next few days. “He’s such a dominant and fast guy that it’s very hard to stop him,” said defender Johnathan Kovacevic. At the same time, when you have three or four guys around him like that, you also have to find a way to stop him…”

Soon for Gallagher

Brendan Gallagher skated in a regular jersey Wednesday morning in Tampa, and he’s getting closer to a return to action, according to the Canadiens. The veteran watched Wednesday night’s game from the top of the press gallery, along with Evgenii Dadonov and Chris Wideman, both cut from the roster. In addition to Gallagher, other injured players are approaching (more slowly) a return to CH, namely Mike Matheson, David Savard and Sean Monahan. The last two have also returned to the skates this week in Brossard.

They said